Life Sciences Technologies by Denis Hochstrasser

This course proposes an overview of current global health challenges drawing on the insights of several academic disciplines including medicine, public health, law, economics, social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary approach will guide the student into seven critical topics in global health.

从本节课中

Research, Development, Innovation and Technology for Global Health

This module addresses the lack of attention to research and development for medicines and technologies for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries and all the issues related to drug development and intellectual property rights.

与讲师见面

Rafael Ruiz De Castañeda

Institute of Global Health - Faculty of MedicineUniversity of Geneva

Antoine Flahault

Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva) and co-Director of Centre Virchow-Villermé (Université Paris Descartes)University of Geneva and Université Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité

[MUSIC]

Hello, my name is Dennis Hochstrasser.

I will give you a short lecture on life sciences technology.

To discuss those life sciences and technology I proposed three questions.

For what could we use those life sciences technologies?

What do we find as a life sciences paradigm shift and

what kind of method, new method, are we talking about.

And what are the global health perspectives of those methods?

How could we employ them in global health in general, and for

patient to prevent disease and to help those who have those diseases.

In life sciences, and

especially in medicine, we need to establish five things.

Either the diagnosis of diseases.

Diagnosticus means in Greek to be able of recognition.

Of the prognostics, the prognosis of the diseases.

Prognosticos means knowing in advance.

And you would like to know in advance if the disease will go away, or

if the patient will do badly.

We need to select therapies.

We need to prevent diseases, to have prevention methods, prevention activities.

And eventually, prediction of diseases, to know who would be watched and

who should get preventive treatment for a disease.

Those five elements, diagnosis, prognosis, therapy, prevention and

prediction of diseases, could be done thanks to life sciences technologies.

Now, from a laboratory medicine perspective,

all diseases are due to two things, genes and the environment.

Any disease is due to gene and the environment.

And the environment could be divided into toxic substances and microbes.

Consequently, again from a laboratory medicine perspective,

one has to look at genes, microbes, and toxic substances.

The effect of those through live sciences technologies.

Now, I took this slide from my colleague Steven Antonakes.

Well, you can see on these slides,

the effect of the environment on the left, and of genes on the right.

And you can see that genes have a tremendous effect for monogenic diseases.

You have acquired diseases from the environment.

And in the middle, which is most of the diseases,

it's a complex impact from the genes and the environment.

Now, if you look at genes, you have for example,

Huntington's Chorea is do to one gene.

And unfortunately, if you have this modified gene you get the disease.